Cruise painted as puppet master

TOM CRUISE controlled every aspect of Katie Holmes's life, making all personal and professional decisions on her behalf, sources close to the actress have said. Amid what could be one of Hollywood's most bitterly contested divorces, those sources suggested she ''couldn't breathe'' without his permission.

Cruise, 50, was said to have barred her from being shown kissing co-stars in films and to have encouraged her to travel separately from fellow cast members.

Cruise's team mocked the suggestions and accused Holmes of ''playing the media''.

Holmes, right, filed for divorce and custody of the couple's six-year-old daughter, Suri, on June 28 in New York. An increasingly aggressive war of words has since broken out. According to TMZ, Holmes had become ''sick and tired of playing Pinocchio to Tom's Geppetto and decided it was time to cut the strings''.

Marty Rathbun, a critic of Scientology who left the organisation in 2004, said the church was beginning a fightback. He produced a leaked email detailing how members could ''stand up and defend our religion on the internet''.